CORONAVIRUS :- CURRENT STATUS AND RISK IN INDIA

The novel coronavirus that began in November 2019 from Wuhan, China has been spreading fiercely since then.

China has the highest number of cases followed by South Korea.

As per March 1, 2020:-

CORONAVIRUS CASES:- 86,993DEATHS:- 2,979RECOVERED:- 42,360

TREATMENT:- Since it is a viral disease there and that too a novel one, there is currently no drug that can act definitively on the virus. Treatment is symptomatic as done in the flu.

Various countries have started drug trials and are coming up with combinations that claim to treat the disease.

Some of these are:-

Favilavir– first approved coronavirus drug in china.

TNX-1800 by Tonix Pharmaceuticals is a vaccine under development.

Brilacidin, by Innovation Pharmaceuticals, is also a potential drug.

RISK IN INDIA

India wasn’t affected by the previous coronavirus pandemics(SARS-2002 and MERS-2012). However, India can be one of the high-risk countries for SARS2 because of its vicinity to China and its large size.

Apart from its sheer size, India is cause for particular worry because of the density of its population: 420 people live on each square kilometer (about 0.4 of a square mile), compared with 148 per square kilometer in China.

Till now only 3 cases have been confirmed in India which has been isolated. Few cases were detected at immigration centers and had been quarantined there itself. Therefore, India is still out of reach for COVID-19 and various incentives have been taken by the health ministry to keep this the same way.